Little France

we brought Harris to Colmar Tropicale, Alsace,France Bukit Tinggi Last tuesday. (Public hols honouring first of Muharram - new year in Islamic calendar).

This is Harris' second time in Bukit Tinggi. the first being while he was still our in-utero child :p Harris as usual showed no signs of enthusiasm about the place unlike his parents. La belle indifference! :p and coincidentally we met our friend and his family who also studied in Nancy last time. Of all places!

Ginger houses

I miss France. huhu.

The other side of me

Praises be to Allah. Cheri, petit cheri, and I have safely arrived after spending 2 memorable weeks at my other hometown - Irbid. . extremely joyous and lovely rencontre with my paternal side of  family.

Dubai is like WOWW! really really Big WOW!

will blog about these two later.

weddings and the mommy thingy

went to two weddings today: Zaty's and Rokiah's. I departed from Kuantan at 0940, left Harris and the maid at  chez grand-mere and set my journey alone. The two brides looked very radiant and lovely. didn't get to meet too many schoolmates though.. anyway, since I was Harris-free for a solid 7 hours, i have to endure the extremely uncomfortable feeling of  milk engorgement.
aduih.. i definitely have to excuse myself for milk pumping every 3 hours once i restarted working otherwise I don't think  I can work peacefully :D

We will be travelling to Jordan next week. Me, hubby and little Harris :) please pray for our safety ( and comfort) through out the long voyage, especially for my petit angel. budak comel itu sangat la mengasyikkan.huhu.

c'est pas trop tard pour le change

sometimes i wonder if i had made a right choice by being a doctor. I am not so happy with my given tasks most of the time for now, but something is telling me I'm gonna be grateful and delighted to be where i will be eventually. i really pray my intuition would turn out right.
why i don't like it much for now?

well, first of all i hate being bossed around - i don't mind specialists - but i hate unnecessary orders by the seniors ( especially if they are just the budding ones - mengade nak mampus) and utterly hate it when it comes from the nurses. man i hate that. i love my current head of department. she's like an angel seriously. a very rare quality for a Malaysian specialist ( who thinks superiority is compulsory to be displayed in every possible channels they could think of- an attitude that rarely worn by the mat saleh Irish specialists i believe. my H.O.D would defend us the mere housemen from stupid complaints notably coming from a few particular Sisters ( one is a serious bitch) anda handful of idiot plus ignorant nurses. uhhh i totally love it when she threw back the dung right onto their snub faces warghaahahaha! and if it was not for her, i doubt i could be flying to Paris for - what most of my friends called - our second honeymoon. i m not really sure what honeymoon supposed to mean exactly; i mean we've been married for almost a year - but yes i think i did suffer honeymoon cystitis afterward :P

secondly, the on-calls. i don't appreciate a series of disturbed sleeps let alone sleepless nights! what even bothers me is how frequent they are. My husband did voice his concern that i wont be around much for him considering numerous monthly on-call nights. we haven't been staying together yet since i started my housemanship. so i honestly don't know how exactly it's gonna be.but i seriously want to work it up to maximise my time with him - if it be within my power. in a way i am very delihgted with the outpouring of new housemen we are currently experiencing- less burden and hopefully less on-calls! ( less calls equals to less extra allowances but then again i am not willing to sacrifice the 3 quarters of my time for the sake of the job. i need time for family and for myself - a right that is deliberately overlooked by the current system.) stop complaining why freshly graduated docs prefer to work oversea : other than the pay, it's the system! doc's welfare are much better taken care of. u know what's the standard line our superiors always like to remind us? we've been through hell and so should you. and oh this is the best part - coming from a deputy state health director during my induction course : a fellow houseman raised a question ; what is the channel for us to voice out our disapproval had we been ill-treated by the superiors. you wanna know what his answer was? - i swear i couldn't believe my ears- ; there is none. just deal with it - very evil-sounded yet the most honest answer i have ever heard.

so far my defense mechanism still works in an acceptable range though it has been edgy many many times :$ :$.. but the best one came from a psychiatrist (no, surprisingly i'm still sane. i met her during a general meeting, not a session :P ). i really now hold on to that to survive work : she said - just remember that everytime you attend to and treat a patient, you will be rewarded big time by the Almighty- even by just smiling at them.

they keep reminding us to work sincerely as well, which i fully agree. but they need to understand that being sincere and being overworked is two different situations. to be sincere is my duty but to get a proper time off is my right!

there you have it.



lucky enough to attend the eiffel tower's 120 years celebration. they cracked a total of 15 thousands fireworks for the event and it was a pure genius and brilliant set of fireworks! like a toddler behind us exclaimed; c'est beau!!! i was suffocating in the sea of people but totally forgot about the hypoxic breathing once the show began. to my beau, merci bien. i hurt you a lot i know, but you are the best thing i have ever had. there are loads of sacrifice you made on my course and i want you to know i acknowledge and appreciate every one of them. i love you and can't wait to have you home!!! baby i love you;X

racletting

We bought the raclette grill yesterday evening. Have been browsing several shops since a couple of weeks ago and we  have finally made up our minds on which one to buy.taraaaaa!!!!

The grill.Behind it was the apron that i mentioned inthe previous post. Just as backdrop:p

Indeed we  shopped en masse yesterday. Mostly on necessities though. Our kitchen had run out of supplies. Chere's printer was running out of cartridge too and hence need a new one.Plus,by purchasing Raclette grill, it obligated us to buy the raclette 'food' as well.the cheese particularly is not that cheap. sigh.  We decided for a simple raclette meal in the end.
Raclette  is  both a cheese, and a grilled dish served with the raclette  cheese.  Both are called raclette. Raclette -as stated in the  grill's manual book- originates from Switzerland.But is so equally  famous in France that you would think it is French's by origin.  I think it would be just as fair to call it a French cuisine too though.  it is not important what you choose to grill as long as you have the cheese heated in the coupelles underneath the grill. it can vary from vegies like tomatoes to meat slices to seafoods . traditionally, it is usualy accompanied by steamed or boiled potatoes as well.  Of course baguette is no alien too :) .

The coupelles

Our package of raclette last night consists of  chicken and beef salami, a platter of boiled potatoes, and a baguette. i wanted to add meat slices to our meal but cheri reminded me we had already had our dinner earlier. a dozen slices of salami would do for the night. allright.

the raclette cheese is a bit smelly but you'll forget about it once you have tasted it. As a matter of fact i smelled nothing when it has  melted.  I have to say this, SEDAP GILE; hehe

the melting cheese

Cheri's plate

my plate ;)

so that was my tail of raclette.  fin :)

killing three birds with one stone.You betcha!!

Somewhen last week, we woke up at 5.15 a.m.
Took  a  shower (separately), got dressed, prayed together, had a quick breakfast, and off to Paris. Yeayyy!!! it was quite an abrupt decision. We only decided this minutes before falling asleep the night before.
We went there for three errands; whereby  two of them were mine,

• Souvenirs hunting
• Window shopping at Val d'europe
• Mondial de l'Automobile / Paris Motor Show (the main and probably the most important reason for such an abrupt and hasty decision:p and no, this is primarily cheri's wish- not mine)

By 8.45 p.m we were already at the Gare de l'est, one  of  the six Paris' train stations. Wasting no time we headed straight to Place St. Michel via Metro. It  is situated just opposite the ever famous Notre Dame Cathedral, separated by River Seine. We weren't there for sightseeing purposes,but as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to buy souvenirs, and it so happened that souvenir shops around that area sell them at cheaper prices. That's the main and sole reason why we were there. We left St Michel metro station for Val d'europe at 11.00 a.m. ,after spending a whopping 75 euros on the souvenirs... huhu. I have to.  The shop owner were kind enough to give us not one but five free gifts worth  12 to 13 euros ,plus a decent discount on the stuff we bought. thanks Monsieur, God Bless your business! i bought myself an apron,with pictures of various types of French Cheese, backgrounded by the French Flag. It looks cool and very french.hehe
Val d'europe is only stops away from the Disneyland. It probably can be labelled as the 'Champs Elysee' for the middle class. It is for me at least! shopping heaven!!! I swear Cheri has never seen me smiling so broadly as that moment  since i came to France. Initially we passed by the usually seen outlets such as GAP, Esprit, Naf Naf, Etam, Armand Thierry etc. Then to the slightly rarer ones like United Colours of Benetton. These shops were all in one long mall. Once we reached the other end of the mall, cheri pulled my hand towards the exit door. what,i want to shop! but to my big, mind-blowing surprise, there's a village of designer outlets located next to the roofed mall!!! Gosh i felt like hugging  him right there for bringing me to this most wonderful village! rambang mate terus.   I look left, Armani. I looked right, Celine. I look futher front, Furla, Lancel,  Burberry!!  I had to step inside every of these outlets. I just had to. there were Christian Lacroix's, Salvatore Ferrangamo's, Dolce and Gabbana's, Calvin Klein's, Tommy H's, almost everything -you name it. It's there. Jimmy Choo and Baccarat is opening soon. No LV/ Dior/ Chanel though. thanks cheri dear. Monsieur Chere was slightly restless and agitated by two o'clock, so i quickly decided what and which items that i wish to buy and shopped i did!! i ended up buying myself a bag and a wallet,plus a long purse and a tie for ma mere et mon pere respectively.

La Vallée Vilage

The world class car exhibition surely attracted millions. We took a connecting underground metro network to Porte de Versailles station to get there.By now it was Chouchou's turn to smile broadly :p  It was really fascinating. not just we were able to see the posh and luxorious cars at close range, we even witnessed various types of limited editions and concept cars from various established major automobile brands. Of course,Proton or Perodua were not there. sigh. too high for their league. we spent more than 4 hours there and even that was not enough to finish the tour. Alas, we had  a train to catch. by 10.00 p.m. ,we were safely home once again. It was a very tiring unplanned trip but satisfying I'd say.   je te remercie mon chere , tu sais que je t'aime :)

les Pains et les Fromages

I have been a fan of French Baguette since many years ago. It was quite a frequently bought item during my tesco-shopping  years. Back in Dublin, a couple  of French baguettes are  must-buy compliment whenever i purchased the Dunne Store's Food-to-Go salad or pasta. For the present, bagutte is almost a daily routine in our menu, alongside with Malaysian dishes  and pasta.
The made-in-France baguette proved to be extradelicious compared to the rest. 'So good you can even eat it on its own'. Ah of course, the French eat baguette virtually in every meal of theirs. Either as sandwiches or some sort of desserts/ appetisers. As for me, I find that baguette tastes best  when eaten with camembert cheese.ohhh.. once you start eating that, you'd find it very hard to stop.and that's exactly the case for me. Not to mention that we usually eat this after a heavy meal. I will not be surprise if I put on weight after these two months in France. but so far, my weight remains at a plateau - since as long as I can remember :p  Now that I know how tasty camembert cheese is, I desperately wish i would find it in Malaysian hypermarkets' refrigerated department. I surely pray so.
I have finally gotten over my long-standing craving for kebab, as i have ingested tons of them in this past one month and half. hohoho. Really, Malaysian 'kebab' is  an absolute insult and disgrace to the real kebab;  both in taste and presentation. Can't the arabs migrate to malaysia for a change? and bring along your shishs, falafel and the rest of your over-the-roof calories and salt content  meals. hehe.
oh I also discovered that pasta is better served with emental cheese rather than the usual parmesan, ceddar or mozarella. Cheri can even eat speggeti sprinkled with that cheese alone without any sauces and it still tastes great.
Raclette. One of the dishes that i had  in mind before boarding for France was raclette. Cheri and I are planning  to buy the raclette grill this afternoon. cant wait!! I will tell more about this unique French food once we bought the grill. hopefully.
talking about food makes me super hungry. i should start preparing lunch now. Alors, a plus!!

monday morning mumbling

Husband is out for school, and I finally got the chance to dominate the internet!! continue to be an old fashion  housewife just  as a true conservative housewife should be:p - at least I wish  I was one. haha.  though I must admit I'm not sure if I could stay this way if it was meant for a long run. you know.. with all the modern lifestyle ideas surrounding your mind's every angle; I should be rewarded big time if i could exempt myself from such temptation. haha. good crap:D
Tina Fey should win an Oscar. Seriously. those Palin skits are hillarious. the only less funny about them , was just how true the jokes were.  Palin is a joke. and that is a scary thing. usually it makes no difference to me whoever is in the white house, as their foreign policies sadly have no major differences but trivial. ( like how both parties love and compete on who kisses Israel's ass the most. like we have to spread democracy but then dont let the palestinians hold an election because Hamas will sure win! and they are terrorist. listen here America, how did u expect to solve the  palestine-israel conflict when you are clearly a pompous bias nation towards one side? im telling you, if hamas is labelled as terrorist group,israel should be one too coz there were no difference in their actions agaisnt each others' citizen; uh oh.. except for the bloody invasion and land robbery by the zionist many decades ago?)ok i should get back to tina and palin things. having said that though, Palin's case is exceptional. i should worry. why? because she's a dumb bimbo brunette from Alaska! imagine if she ever took over the oval office... and all the scary decisions and judgements that she would make..  she may be 'charming???' but governing requires knowledge which seems to be lacking from her 'homer simpson'-like brain.if Iwere to select my leader, Iwouldn't want an average hockey mom or an average six-pack-joe,- ' who is just like me' to be one. I would want someone who is hell smarter than me. anyone can be president, yes; but only if he or she deserves it. And uh oh.. with Mc cain's extensive record of medical conditions ( God knows how many cancers he has had!), it would be more than possible that this self-proclaimed hockey mom from alaska- who only received her first ever passport last year- would be world's most important person. Heaven Forbid!!! the world will never be a better place if not worse.  I want nothing but peace all over. I'm sick of hearing warfare news. and how unjust this world seems to be.
I am not in favour of Obama's Policies in many things. infact Mc Cains' seems to fit my ideology better. nonetheless, Mc Cain is not a convincing choice for a president. He is simply ...not the president material. Obama on the other hand, does have what it takes ;the booming voice, the ability to execute (or so it seems), almost straight to the point messages, well composed,and  he own a more confident personality.
You should watch their debates. both Mc cain -Obama and Biden-Palin . You'll have a good laugh watching the latter. I guarantee. And make sure to watch all the Palin's skits on SNL. What an amazing impersonation by tina fey. The body languages, the accent were all very palin-like. And of course, you definitely should watch Palin's  horrible CBS interview with KAtie Couric!!  - then watch fey :D

I got this while surfing the other day.  Thought it was funny. and quite summed up the debate too. She appeared to be EXACTLY like what this chart  tried to  portray.

L'amour est dans l'air

here I am, postponing housemanship for two months or more. regret? Non! Love it? oui!  
I made it to Versaille Finally. I've had always desired to go there and last week, that dream came true! the hearsays and written discriptions of versaille do not exaggerate of its majestic grandeur even  slightest! 
Versaille : king of all chateaux ,and bien sur, the residence of  The Sun King ; Le Roi Soleil =) 

Hall of mirrors : view from the main garden. Even the garden has numerous wings. imagine how many that 51000 metre square castle itself has..

from the outside